Liquid fuel



aim at ,TE'D STATES BURNELL R. TUNISOlN, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.,

' 00., A CORPORATION ASSIGNOR TO u. s. INDUSTRIAL ALCOHOL or wear vmemm.

LIQUID FUEL.

naeaoao.

No Drawing.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, BURNELL R. TUNIsoN, a citizen of the United States, residing at New York, in the county of New York and State of New York, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Liquid Fuels, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates particularly to fuels designed to be used in any desired manner. It has application especially to fuels adapted to be used alternatively for a wide va riety of purposes, as for example, fuels to be used for burners under steam boilers, as well as for internal combustion engines of various kinds, Diesel engines, or the like.

An object of my invention is to provide an efficient fuel for various uses, which fuel, although ordinarily containing a preponderating proportion of a comparatively heavy hydrocarbon shall nevertheless contain such additional substance or substances as to enable the fuel to be used, alternatively or optionally, in the same manner as the light hydrocarbon fuels heretofore employed in internal combustion engines, or the like, said additional substances to be other than mere paraffin hydrocarbons.

Another objectof my invention is to provide a fuel, or type of fuel, containing a relatively heavy hydrocarbon together with an additional lighter combustible ingredient of such a character that it will blend efiectually with the relatively heavy hydrocarbon and notably modify the properties thereof.

In one of its broader aspects, my present invention may be said to aim at-a wider availability, in the production of motive power, on the part of relatively heavy hydrocarbons, such as heavy distillates which may be derived from crude oil, and which may have a Baum gravity heavier than 40, such wider availability resulting from the employment therewith of an ingredient or ingredients which shall contribute so notably to readiness of ignition that satisfactory ignition may be obtained without raising the Baum gravity of the product even to the level of ordinary kerosene, and contribute to producing an improved combustion, and in' one of its more restricted as pects my present invention may be said to that have already been deprived of their Specification of Letters Patent.

apparent that the production, from hydrocarbons Patented July 18, 1922.

Application filed April 12, 1920. Serial No. 373,308.

gasoline and kerosene fractions, of a product, presumably less costly than either of the mentioned fractions, which shall at the same time rival gasoline in its suitability for use 1n, for example, automobile engines.

In one aspect, the present invention may be said to proceed from a recognition of progress made and to be made 1n the de sign of engines and other devices for the utilization of the energy of fuels and, in so far as it aims at a complemental advance in the perfecting of supposedly inferior fuels for more exacting and important uses than those to which such fuels have heretofore been put, it may be said to aim at the obviating of a shortage in one of the prime necessities of modern manufacture and comlmlprce, fuels for automobile engines and the The fuels herein referred to being essentially mere mixtures or solutions of one organic substance within another, it will be the sequence of operations by which they are produced may be varied, but the following will serve as typical examples.

Beginning with any ordinary mineral oil, such as a typical Pennsylvania crude oil, which I may distill off for direct use in commerce the usual quantities of lighter products including gasoline and kerosene, proceeding with such distillation preferably until substantially all the asoline and kerosene have been distilled o I and until the residuum left in the still shall have a Baum gravity less than 40. I may then associate with this residual material, or with a fraction distilled therefrom, and in any convenient manner, as by pouring and agitating, or by distilling one ingredient into a body of another ingredient, one or more relatively volatile combustible constituents containing an aryl radicle and satisfactorily miscible therewith, such as:

Aromatic hydrorcarbons (e. g. benzol, toluol, xylol, or mixtures thereof).

Nitro-hydrocarbons (e. g. nitrobenzol, nitrotoluol, or mixtures thereof).

I The volatile combustible ingredients referred to (or any analogous ingredients that may fall within the claims hereinafter presented) may advantageously be incorporated with the heavier ydrocarbon or hydrocarbon mixture will, of course, depend not alone proportions in which the respective I are - it to some specific use tremely wide range of variations will a0- cordingly be understood to be included within the intended scope of the claims appended hereto.

The following are offered merely as specific examples of compositions within the scope of my present invention, it being understood that wherever the expression heavy oil is employed in the said examples, this expression may refer to a petroleum distillate or residue which may consist of para 11 oils and which may be heavier than 40 B., and may, for example, be as heavy as 28 B. By the term, petroleum distillates heavier than kerosene, I mean those petroleum distillates which have densities lying above the generally-accepted upper limit of the range of kerosene densities, which, asalready mentioned, lies at about 40 1%., or about .82 absolute density. The parts referred to are parts by volume:

E azample 1.

Heavy oil 7 5 parts Benzol 25 parts E wample 2.

Heavy oil 75 parts Benzol 2() parts Nitrobenzol 5 parts It should be understood that in the above examples the benzol may be supplanted in whole or in part by nitrobenzol, and that nitrotoluol or nitroxylol might be used instead of nitrobenzol. Also, that'the nitro radicle (N0 in the mentioned equivalents contains oxygen and nitrogen in forms capable of contributing to the promptitude of reactions which, when occurring under suitable conditions, proceed with explosive violence.

As already mentioned, and as will be apparent from the foregoing, while I have described in detail a few specific embodiments of my invention in synthetic univerisal liquid fuels, each of. which comprises a preponderating quantity of a heavy hydrocarbon, and each of which is suitable. for

uses. as widely separated as are, on the one hand, employment (under suitable conditions of temperature and pressure and in due admixture with air or with oxygen) in explosion motors and, on the other hand, employment in direct generation of heat under steam boilers, many additional changes may be made without departing from the spirit of my invention, as indicated in the foregoing description and in the appended claims.

I claim:

1. A liquid fuel consisting of a petroleum distillate heavier than kerosene, and an aromatic hydrocarbon.

2. A liquid fuel consisting of a petroleum distillate heavier than kerosene, and benzol.

3. A liquid fuel consisting of a petroleum distillate heavier than kerosene, and an aromatic nitro-hydrocarbon.

l. A liquid fuel consisting of a petroleum distillate heavier than kerosene, and nitrobenzol.

5. A liquid fuel comprising a petroleum distillate heavier than kerosene, an aromatic hydrocarbon, and an aromatic nitro-hydrocarbon.

6. A liquid fuel comprising a petroleum distillate heavier than kerosene, benzol, and nitro-benzol.

7. A liquid fuel comprising a petroleum distillate heavier than kerosene, and an aromatic hydrocarbon, the distillate bein present in the proportion of about three-fourths of the mixture.

8. A liquid fuel comprising a petroleum distillate heavier than kerosene, and benzol, the distillate being present in the proportion of about three-fourths of the mixture.

9. A liquid fuel comprising a petroleum distillate heavier than kerosene, an aromatic hydrocarbon and an aromatic nitro; hydrocarbon, the distillate being present in the proportion of about three-fourths of the mixture. f

10. A liquid fuel comprising a petroleum distillate heavier than kerosene, and a nitrobenzol, the distillate being present in the proportion of about three-fourths of the mixture.

11. A liquid fuel comprising a petroleum distillate heavier than kerosene, benzol and nitro-benzol, in the proportions of: petroe leumdistillate, about 75%; benzol, about 20%, and nitro-benzol, about 5%.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing, I have hereunto set my hand this 16th day of March, 1920.

BURNELL R. TUNISO'N. 

